It is known that such dispensers generally include an enclosure in which the apparatus for enabling operation of the dispenser is disposed. The enclosure is generally divided so as to define at least two compartments. The first compartment contains the operating means of the dispenser, such as the means for feeding through the money, the means for issuing a ticket corresponding to the requested service, the means for printing the ticket or any other apparatus necessary to the functioning of the dispenser. The second compartment is for keeping the valuables, in particular the cash, inserted by the user. The second compartment forms what is commonly called the cash box. The latter may for example contain a "coin cash box" and a "ticket cash box".
Each compartment has its own access door.
Access to the first compartment containing the various apparatuses and operating systems of the dispenser is not controlled in the same way as access to the cash box.
Persons having to enter the dispenser for maintenance or servicing do not normally have to enter the cash box, to which access is reserved solely to persons authorized to collect the money resulting from the transactions carried out.
Known dispensers have locks for barring access to the first compartment and, likewise, to the second compartment (cash box compartment). Thus, each person who needs to enter the dispenser is a holder of a key. The persons charged with maintenance and servicing have a key enabling access to the first compartment while the persons authorized to remove the sums contained in the cash box hold two keys, one for the first compartment and the other for the cash box.
This key system leads to some difficulties. For example, the keys are at risk of being duplicated relatively easily and it is, therefore, possible to pass the keys around or to give them to persons other than those authorized. Also, the persons who have access to the apparatus may be tempted to carry out fraudulent operations inside the dispensers. Moreover, the constraint of simplifying management leads to providing identical keys for a large number of dispensers. However, in doing this the risk of attempts at fraud is increased.
From the point of view of managing a number of dispensers of this type, it is important for the manager to know with as much certainty as possible the nature of the operations carried out and their frequency, and also the identity of the persons entering the apparatus on each occasion, and this is particularly important in relation to the persons charged with removal of the sums contained in the cash box.
It is desirable to determine for each person who seeks to gain entry to a dispenser the identity of that person in order to check if he/she is an authorized person. It is clear that a conventional system of locks and keys does not make it possible to make this check, since keys can be duplicated and the holder of a key is not necessarily an authorized person.
Devices have been proposed which attempt to control and regulate access to the cash box and especially to know its contents. Thus, devices exist, especially in the field of parking meters, comprising a collection center associated with a memory card and also associated with portable data processing means adapted to enter into communication on the one hand with the collection center and on the other hand with each parking meter, in encrypted language, with a view to knowing in particular the amounts of the sums contained in the interrogated parking meters. That device provides a check on access to the cash box. However, access to the cash box is always effected by means of a conventional key, with the resultant limitations mentioned above. Although that device is satisfactory, it can be improved.